Media moguls land, humbled, in Sun Valley

Change is in the air in the media world, and its billionaires are in Idaho looking to capitalize.

The Allen & Co. Sun Valley conference has midwived megadeals over the years, including Comcast-NBCUniversal and Jeff Bezos’ purchase of The Washington Post. But today’s moguls face a scrambled world, with YouTube eating television, media companies in Trump’s crosshairs, and a Darwinian competition for the last appointment-viewing content — sports. Streaming replaced the cable bundle, but without the big profits.

At last year’s Sun Valley gathering, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav predicted a wave of media M&A, little of which has materialized beyond the breakup of his own company. Whatever deals come out of this year’s billionaire summer camp are likely to be less about building empires than guarding flanks — or selling out to private-equity firms willing to manage the decline. Forgive the lack of swagger, Variety writes.